Lens Flare and the series Untitled Basel Lens Flare (6168, 5950, 7497) were part of a solo project by the artist presented at ArtBasel in 2009. Included in the Kadist Collection, these works continue to explore the ontology of the image to investigate the relationship between painting, photography, and a new time-based variable: film. Reduced here to the essential function of recording the exposure of light through the apparatus of a lens, Kantor then translated these film stills into painted colored canvases that retain the 3:4 aspect ratio of the 16mm film as well as the exact size of the projected image. The resulting paintings depict the “lens flares” in the film—the fleeting reflective glare inside the camera apparatus that results from when its lens is pointed directly at a bright light source.
Jordan Kantor’s artworks explore relationships between painting and photographic mediums. Unified by an overarching logic rather than a singular aesthetic approach—and strongly informed by art history—his interdisciplinary practice addresses discourses in contemporary image culture through the lens of conceptually-driven painting.
Eclipse is a series of screenprints from Jordan Kantor’s larger vitrine installation that included reworkings of a single image of a small group viewing an eclipse through shielding cut-outs...